My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

State vi (of viii)
before the addition of the seven “short, horizontal strokes on the lower left of
the pole on the left side of the composition”, signifying the seventh state, and the horizontal
strokes covering the whole pole, signifying the eighth and final state (seeLeonard J Slatkes et al., 1994, “Adriaen
van Ostade: Etchings of Peasant Life in Holland’s Golden Age”, exh. cat., Georgia
Museum of Art, p. 204; see also an example of the eight state at the British
Museum, no. 1980,U.1680).

Condition:
well-inked, crisp and well-printed impression in excellent condition within the
circular image borderline, but with significant abrasions and restored losses
in the square margin area. The sheet has been laid upon a washi paper support
sheet and re-margined with the washi paper support sheet having been laminated over
a cradle of archival quality wove paper.

I am selling
this crisp and luminous impression with strong tonal contrast for AU$360 (currently
US$272.62/EUR231.49/GBP204.05 at the time of this listing) including postage
and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this graphically strong image, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This image of a
peasant family killing a pig in the evening may seem horribly gruesome and
confronting to contemporary eyes—at least to my delicate eyes unaccustomed to seeing
such a scene. Nevertheless, to early Netherlandish viewers acculturated to such
an everyday rural activity, the slaughter may have been perceived not as a
backyard bloodbath as I see it, but as a celebration of and/or anticipation of
the annual holiday of Slachtmaand (the slaughtering month)—November. In fact, I
understand from reading Leonard J Slatkes et al., 1994, “Adriaen van Ostade:
Etchings of Peasant Life in Holland’s Golden Age”, exh. cat., Georgia Museum of
Art (p. 205) that the subject was not simply a scene of slaughter by
candlelight. Instead, it expresses the dual notions of prudentia (prudence) and
vanitas (life’s brevity), as expressed by other printmakers who also depicted
this scene, such as Rembrandt and Pieter Breugel the Elder.